Printers are useful for producing printed images of a wide range of receiver types. Printers often operate by transferring colorants such as inks or dyes in controlled patterns on receivers (or “imaging substrates”). Such receivers can take a variety of forms including but not limited to webs or sheets of paper, other planar media, glass, fabric, metal, or other objects. Removal processes are referred to as “deinking” processes. Deinking the receivers permits them to be recycled without having to bleach the color out of them. However, commonly-used inkjet printers deposit hydrophilic ink on absorbent papers. As the ink soaks into the paper after printing, the dyes or pigments in the inks become adhered to or embedded in the paper. These colorants are very difficult to remove. Specifically, solvents used in deinking processes are generally oliophilic, so are poor solvents for the hydrophilic or oliophobic inks generally used in inkjet printing. In an industrial recycling setting, therefore, deinking a mixed waste stream of inkjet- and toner-printed receivers sorting the printed receivers by printing technology and ink used before processing, increases the cost and complexity of recycling. Moreover, the chemicals for deinking hydrophilic inks would have to be processed, producing additional waste.
There is a need, therefore, for methods of making inkjet prints that can be deinked and recycled. There is also a need to provide methods and systems that that can be joined to existing ink jet printers to provide prints with enhanced deinkability.